Revanche – I think you and I row the same boat on rocky seas. Unexpected illnesses and sometimes straight up bad luck lead me to buffer those bank accounts as much as possible now, so that I don’t have to worry about big storms in the future. It’s definitely easier to invest without worry when a paycheck keeps rolling in, but like you I wonder what it will feel like to watch the markets ebb and flow without that incoming safety net. I’m sorry you’ve been through such a rough patch in life. I envy those who have never encountered a major life event. It must feel amazing to live without fear.

A FI friend characterized my “free” number as both impossible and paralyzing. She’s probably not wrong about the former, nor the latter But the fact is, I don’t think I’d be comfortable without at least 25-40x our annual spending because I worry about how bad luck used to come up for me: in large clumps spanning weeks, months, and even years! Deaths, catastrophic prolonged illness, chronic illness, accidents, you name it, we had it. How many bad years could we weather in a row without a regular income? I am not sure what the real answer to that question is when I don’t have a good model for both relying on our admittedly robust investments to keep growing AND relying on them for income. I’m a very confident investor when I have a regular FT income coming in. What’s going to happen to our mindset and our level of comfort when we subtract one or two W-2 sources of income?

Nevertheless I remain hopeful that after we weather the next recession, if we do a decent job and have plenty of good luck unlike the last recession, perhaps we’ll find ourselves in a much better financial place to consider ourselves financially independent AND free.

35x expenses is great. It provides that buffer for unexpected expenses. I realized I stopped worrying about money when we experienced three big, unexpected expenses within the same week. I happily handed over my credit card without thinking ‘how will I pay for that.’ It’s a blessing not to have to worry about money. It frees your mind to think about so many other important things. My husband is still working, but I do wonder if my thoughts would change ever so slightly if he quit.